If your not bothered about losing 2" of screen and a Firewire port, you can buy the Macbook which will now drive the 30" display. So the 2.4 model + the video adaptor = a saving of $400 off the baseline Pro.

OK.. to help... Do you need it because of it's flashy, shiny new style? Or would you be as happy with a fully featured but slightly out of date model that's equally as fast, and be compatible with everything, right out of the box?

From my knowledge and experience from Apple, they love to use propriety goods.. back in the 80's this used to happen with near enough every reversion. We'd buy something that's perfectly fine, then in the next update, the connectors are wrong, later they'll jump back into the norm and say it's a new feature on their next revision....

Apple seems to love fixing things that ain't broken - they call it development, i call it craziness!!

I have to slightly disagree with you. I firmly stand against the saying "Do not mess with it if it's not broken"... I believe this utter crap sentence is developed by people who luckily invented one thing and do not have the creativity or skills to develop better technologies, and watch others exceed them and all they do is talk about how reliable "their" old crap is.

DisplayPort is the future and it's the right way to go. So is Firewire800, I'm suprised that Apple didn't include a FW3200 port.

But going to these tech does not mean that you have the abandon the good old stuff. $99 DVI converter cables and $xxxx Firewire 800/400 cables are not cool. Those have to be bundled with every Mac.

Where is the MiniDisplay port to standard displayport adapter? Is Apple trying to force me to only use their 24 inch display with a new MBP? If I get a new MBP (which despite the irritating glossy display I probably will) I want a matte desktop display, which means DVI to my aging 23inch cinema display or more likely a new, non-apple display that supports displayport. But, no adapter to the new industry standard? What gives?

I have to slightly disagree with you. I firmly stand against the saying "Do not mess with it if it's not broken"... I believe this utter crap sentence is developed by people who luckily invented one thing and do not have the creativity or skills to develop better technologies, and watch others exceed them and all they do is talk about how reliable "their" old crap is.

DisplayPort is the future and it's the right way to go. So is Firewire800, I'm suprised that Apple didn't include a FW3200 port.

But going to these tech does not mean that you have the abandon the good old stuff. $99 DVI converter cables and $xxxx Firewire 800/400 cables are not cool. Those have to be bundled with every Mac.

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Well... You can take it, however you like!!

There are some useful features if you think about it, but we the consumers ain't really sure what direct Apple is trying to go, at the moment it seems apparent that the old MBP15 has become a high-end consumer portable. So far, they've release those wonderful looking machines, change some of the ports, introduce a display at isn't an iMac but isn't "Pro" either. Gave them a similar names, causing a mis-lead/mis-understood/confusion to buyers.

No-one said the mini DisplayPort is a bad thing.. but, who in the world would like to cough up a further $100 so they can use their new toy on existing equipment? Seriously... that's a complete f#ck up on Apple's part.

Btw, the FW3200 standard your thinking about offers 3.2 Gbit/s and they'll also use the existing FW800 plug/socket - hence no new socket! Though it should be interesting when USB3 appears. Rather surprised Apple didn't include this feature too!

Well, Apple did a similar thing with the proprietary ADC connector. If you wanted to connect an industry-standard DVI or VGA display, you had to buy a $100+ adapter. DisplayPort is actually an open VESA standard that has far more potential than HDMI. Apple was just the first to use it.

But what gets me is why Apple sells two different parts (single and dual link). They ought to just sell one part that does both at a more reasonable price. Not everyone wants to buy their new 24" ACD (or the small handful of third-party displays that actually support DisplayPort).

But FW400/800 cables are actually not that expensive; there are several alternatives to that Belkin Gold cable with an inflated price that Best Buy tries to sell you.

Btw, the FW3200 standard your thinking about offers 3.2 Gbit/s and they'll also use the existing FW800 plug/socket - hence no new socket! Though it should be interesting when USB3 appears. Rather surprised Apple didn't include this feature too!

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I know. And FW can theoretically flex up to 6.4Gbps with the same socket. I guess the 1600/3200 speed spec is not finalized yet and that was the reason for Apple not to include this port. I guess we'll seee this in the next MBP update - probably with the introduction of mobile Nehalem.

Display port is just another way to charge more money with adapters. That's all it really is at the moment.

Saying it's the future is valid, but the future is uncertain. No one knows if this will take off.

If you want to talk about technologies being the future, I'll say what happened to blue ray?

It's a "bag of hurt" i.e. hurts Apple's iTunes HD stuff.

Complex licensing is a poor excuse. True it's complex, but we're talking about a company that revolutionized selling music online, turned the recording industry with all their overpaid lobbyists upside down.

If Apple can do that to an industry which is resistant to change, and negotiate all the complex licenses, royalties etc.

DisplayPort is actually an open VESA standard that has far more potential than HDMI. Apple was just the first to use it.

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So where are the adaptors from Belkin and other people? Where's the competition to help drive down the price of a $10 part from $100

I have the LP3065 - it's awesome - especially the 3 dvi ports - but I really do have second thoughts over getting a new machine when I have to pay over the odds for the machine in the first place, and then 70 quid on top for the DL-DVI, and Apple being Apple, you just know you can't drop a VGA adaptor onto that DVI adpator - so another 20 quid for that. nearly 100 quid of adaptors just to plug it into monitors. Disgusting.

Staff Member

Display port is just another way to charge more money with adapters. That's all it really is at the moment.

Saying it's the future is valid, but the future is uncertain. No one knows if this will take off.

If you want to talk about technologies being the future, I'll say what happened to blue ray?

It's a "bag of hurt" i.e. hurts Apple's iTunes HD stuff.

Complex licensing is a poor excuse. True it's complex, but we're talking about a company that revolutionized selling music online, turned the recording industry with all their overpaid lobbyists upside down.

If Apple can do that to an industry which is resistant to change, and negotiate all the complex licenses, royalties etc.

Blu-Ray shouldn't be a bag of hurt.

nuff said

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AFAIK, the issues with BluRay playback are far deeper than royalty payments - you have to implement end to end HDCP and DRM protection in the base operating system: This is one of the things that contributes to Vista's dire performance and personally I'm glad Apple are refusing to back down and include it in OS X - it really is a world of hurt!

I have the LP3065 and the picture quality and ergonomics are excellent.

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Or get the Dell 3008WFP because it actually has DisplayPort. That way you can still connect an HDCP source or another computer to the same monitor (through DVI). It also has HDMI if that tickles your fancy, along with component!

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